Righteous Forefather Jared

Place in the Antediluvian Line

According to Genesis 5:15-20, Jared was the son of Mahalalel and the father of Enoch. He thus stands in the sixth generation from Adam, in the genealogical descent that continues through his son Enoch - the patriarch of whom Scripture says that he 'walked with God' - and then through Enoch's son Methuselah and on to Lamech and Noah.

The Genesis text reports that Jared fathered Enoch at the age of 162 and afterward lived 800 more years, having other sons and daughters, for a total lifespan of 962 years - among the longest recorded of the pre-flood patriarchs. The Hebrew form of his name (Yered) is generally understood to carry the sense of 'descent.' Beyond these genealogical notices, the biblical text records no narrative of his life or actions.

His name recurs in the later genealogical summaries of Scripture, including the line of descent in 1 Chronicles and the genealogy of Christ given in the Gospel of Luke, which traces the ancestry of Jesus back through the patriarchs to Adam.

Veneration among the Holy Forefathers

In the Orthodox Church, Jared is honored as one of the Righteous Forefathers - the Old Testament ancestors of Christ. These figures, from Adam through the patriarchs and prophets, are commemorated together on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, which falls on the Sunday between December 11 and 17, the second Sunday before the Nativity, during the Nativity Fast.

The commemoration remembers the righteous who lived before the Law and under the Law, and gives thanks for the ancestral line through which, in Orthodox understanding, the promise to the patriarchs was fulfilled in the incarnation of Christ. As a forefather standing in this lineage, Jared is venerated within that collective memory rather than through an individual cult, relics, or shrine.